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I’m in shock. I knew it was coming, you knew it was coming, but damn this issue was better than I expected. Image just stuck gold.

Mark Millar, writer of Kick-Ass & Wanted (both titles that could describe himself), nails another new series with Jupiter’s Legacy. The first two issues I was questioning where Millar would take the narrative, growing a little concerned it was going to be a bunch of bratty, drug addicted super-punks who whined their way into corporate endorsements only to waste pages while the real story got sidelined. But what was I thinking? This is Mark Millar! No, no. This issue is where it all begins; Where hands get dirty, goverments are overthrown, and skulls get pummeled into oblivion.

Not only does Glasgow claim Millar as it’s own, but Frank Quitely as well. Which is just great because I imagine these two smoking pipes by a fire, unfolding this promising work, afterwhich they go over to Grant Morrison’s house and perform magic rituals and it gets really weird. I love it. [Editor's Note: Morrison opined in 2011 that he hoped to hit Millar with a car going 100 MPH, so I doubt they'll be performing magic together anytime soon.] But Quitely, whom you no doubt know from his X-Men runs and All-Star Superman, fits this story perfectly. There’s a nice touch of grit to these characters set in a pristinely colored world, which sums up the feel of the characters beautifully.

Speaking of which, character development ripens this issue, showing off Millar’s talent. I don’t want to give too much away because you need to read this issue to get the full depth of each character’s progression. So for those who haven’t read the first two issues, these stuper-heroes are self-proclaimed rockstars who are as disastrous as Miley Cyrus right now. If you’ve read Kingdom Come by Mark Waid, you're bound to see some similarities in this new generation of reprobates. In Jupiter’s Legacy, the Utopian; a symbol of will, perseverance, and the American way only represents an outdated concept, so he’s rejected by all those around him. Thus it would seem the Utopian’s weakness is the failure to pay attention to his personal life and the perceptions of his peers. Future issues look like they’ll focus on what it means to be a leader, how power corrupts the mighty, and what it means to stand up for what is right when you don’t think you’re worthy to, but no-one else will.

I only caught a few things over the past couple issues that stuck out to me from an editing standpoint. “That can’t (couldn’t?) have been easy.” Uncle Walter says. A couple awkward sentences like that appear here and there, but otherwise the dialogue feels very natural & modern enough that you feel like it could be happening right now, suspending disbelief.

This twenty-one page issue is all tragedy and treachery and heavy on the foreshadowing. Undoubtedly some rich rue, bitter betrayal, & callous conquest are soon to unfold in an epic new way. I love that Image can do this over and over again; create whole new worlds. The power behind creator owned comics is astounding with the right team behind it. There’s a lot to mine out of these characters, in my opinion, this is Invincible level work from Image.

Wow, that was all kinds of awesome. After enjoying the first 2 issues of this title, but not really being blown away by them, this was a real step-up, and it has me very excited for what’s next. Millar has said that, if Jupiter’s Legacy were a play, then this is the end of Act 1, and you can really tell that here, as the shit hits the fan in a big way as Walter launches his coup on his brother, The Utopian, and he wins, emphatically.

Millar and Quitely begin things off fairly quietly, with Utopian telling Hutch that he can’t marry his daughter. This was a good scene, as it showed that whilst Utopian can be a bit of an old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud, he’s still well-meaning and, as an analogue of Superman, essentially a great guy. Millar goes out of his way to have him be the epitome of everything people view as great about America, hard-working, honest etc. Which is probably why he has to die. In the midst of talking to Hutch, Utopian is called away, to stop a falling satellite. He tries to call upon the rest of his team, but they don’t help, because they are working with Walter to take him down.

At the same time as the Utopian is dealing with this falling satellite (which is nuclear, Walter is also attacking his wife, who has just welcomed the pregnant Chloe back home. The nuclear bomb detonates, and we see the rest of the ‘heroes’ attacking both Utopian and his wife. I loved how we once again saw Walter use his powers to trick Grace into thinking she’d won, when she was basically already dead, and just seeing Quitely’s pencils was again a very effective and cool technique. Just as Uncle Walter is about to kill Chloe, Hutch teleports in and saves her, using his power rod or whatever it’s called to zap around the world to try and escape. I love how, just like everything Millar, the scale of this teleportation is just massive, going across the whole world. Chloe, Hutch and their unborn child manage to escape, and it looks like they are going to be the major heroes of this story going forward. I’m certainly very interested in Hutch, he’s a great character so far, and I’m especially interested in his background, stuff like his villainous father for example.

The final few pages feature everyone ganging up on the Utopian, kicking the crap out of him in the desert. It was actually a really emotional scene, with Utopian not understanding why everyone was turning on him, not least his own son. It’s sad seeing those old, heroic ideals be shat on by cynical modern deconstructions, and that’s really what Millar is going for with this story I think. He’s known as one of those cynical deconstructors thanks to The Authority and The Ultimates, but it’s clear that he really loves superheroes, and believes in Superman in particular, so to see him kill an analogue here was really effective. We’ve seen conflicts like this before, like Superman Vs The Elite, but here… the cynics can win. In the end, Brandon eye-blasts his dad to death, causing massive flash of light, and searing Utopian’s entire face of, which was just… shocking.

I’m finding Brandon to be an interesting character as well, how much of what he’s doing is him, and how much is him being mentally manipulated by Walter, who claims to just be consulting, but is clearly pulling the strings. I’m anticipating a Darth Vader throwing the Emperor down the hole style scene in the future.

As I said, this is the best issue of this title so far, the first 2 were really only set up, but now the story is really going strong, ‘Superman’ is dead, so what’s next? You get the feeling that this really is Millar’s final statement on superheroes, so it’s going to be fascinating to see where it’s going.

Frank Quitely of course delivers fantastic art here, his style is so unique and cool, and it’s rarely looked better, perhaps only All-Star Superman can live up to it. I particularly like how understated the art is at times, there’s no massive laser beams or flashes of light, it brings the epic superhero fights down to earth, it makes the punches and the heat-vision seem much more real.